Free Agency Primer: The Case For Mason Plumlee
Why the Clippers should bring the veteran center back.
Apologies for not getting this up over the last couple of days, but as one can imagine things have been pretty hectic in the basketball sphere over the last 48 or 72 or however many hours it’s been.
For the final portion of our four-part series, say hello to the case that outlines why the LA Clippers should bring back center Mason Plumlee in free agency.
If you missed any of the previous three parts, well you’re in luck:
The case to keep Plumlee is a rather easy one. So let’s outline it in three parts.
1. Clippers need a backup center
The Clippers went into last season with no backup center. Well, that’s kind of true and kind of a lie, I guess. They had Moses Brown, and to say they had no backup center sounds like an insult to Brown, but Brown was on a two-way contract and clearly not someone they intended to keep for the full season.
In acquiring Plumlee from Charlotte, the Clippers got an actual legitimate rotation-worthy center to fit in behind Ivica Zubac. It cost them fan-favorite Reggie Jackson, but the benefits Plumlee brought allowed the team to not overextend Zubac more than they had to.
Plumlee played well during his time in Los Angeles. The veteran big man averaged 7.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and shot 72.7 percent from the field. Plumlee, who is a notoriously poor free throw shooter, managed to make 77.2 percent of his foul shots with the Clippers across 23 games. In the playoffs, Plumlee averaged 8.2 points and 6.8 rebounds in 18.2 minutes, making 14 of his 16 field goal attempts and 13 of his 14 free throw tries.
That level of production, even if he’s unable to replicate the playoff numbers, is valuable to have out of a backup center. You don’t need an earth-shattering option coming off the bench. You just need a solid big that can soak up minutes and not be a total liability. Plumlee fits that.
2.) Plumlee’s archetype is fine to have
When looking at Plumlee’s fit structurally for the Clippers, you find almost no faults in him as a backup five other than you’d find it even more advantageous if he was able to space the floor or be a bit better as a rim protector, but that’s also why he’s a backup at this point. If Plumlee could shoot, coupled with his other traits, he’d be a highly-paid starting center.
Plumlee is an adept passer, as evidenced by the ‘B’ grade in Playmaking Talent at the bottom of the above graphic. That level of facilitation is a huge boon to the Clippers’ second unit, and even to the team’s starting lineups if Zubac has to sit — whether that be for injury, foul trouble, etc.
On top of that, Plumlee’s ability to convert at a high level around the basket remains one of the best skills an NBA player can have. This past season, Plumlee converted 73.6 percent of his attempts at the rim. Considering he took 390 shots there, that’s an elite percentage. It was the same conversion rate that Aaron Gordon enjoyed this season.
When you compare Plumlee to Zubac specifically, it gets rather interesting.
Plumlee isn’t the rim protector or screener that Zubac is, but Plumlee’s ability to act as a facilitator at the elbow and be a more athletic finisher for lob attempts affords the team a level of versatility that they wouldn’t otherwise have. By being able to feed the ball into Plumlee at the elbow and run action off of it, it gives players more opportunities to get involved for easier shots.
That’s where Plumlee’s value can be seen on the floor — providing a safe alternative to their usual brand of basketball.
3.) Plumlee has been good over his career
A lot of the times when we examine backups — or potential backups, for that matter — we look at the last year or two of their careers and then try to project out from that. But what if we looked at a player’s whole career and tried to get an idea of what was going on?
This is Mason Plumlee’s career boiled down to two advanced metrics.
Those metrics are Basketball Index’s LEBRON (Luck-adjusted player Estimate using a Box prior Regularized ON-off) and Dunks and Threes’ EPM (Estimated Plus-Minus).
Anything in the green is a positive, anything in the red is naturally a negative, and yellow is just neutral. We can see how Plumlee grades out above, and it’s a pretty positive overall player. There hasn’t been a single season where both metrics have graded Plumlee as a negative. There’s been four where he’s been viewed as a positive. That’s the makings of a solid-to-good player.
Plumlee, 33, is approaching the tail end of his career most likely, and this is the last chance he’s going to get for a meaningful payday. The Clippers hold his Bird Rights. Bringing him back makes a lot of sense from the standpoint that he has several skills that they could find useful, has been a good player over the duration of his lengthy career, and clearly fit moderately well with this squad just this past season.
If the Clippers are to avoid the pitfalls of what took place in the first half of last season as they dealt with life sans a legitimate backup center, or even one who can potentially start, re-signing Plumlee would seem to be a prudent move.
The fact remains: Plumlee fits. Whether or not that’s what they decide remains to be seen, especially with all the other rumors swirling about potential trades and whatnot.